[UPDATE 09/14/2012]: There's another replacement phone: Samsung Replenish Android phone. It's listed as $79. However, Boost Mobile does not have pay-as-you-go plan for this phone because it's a smart phone. The lowest monthly plan is $55.

[UPDATE 06/30/2013]: We now sell the new starter kits based non-phone GPS trackers.

If it's intended for long time tracking, you might want to take a look at a non-phone GPS tracker (we support many). Most of them last longer than a phone; some of them can be directly wired to vehicle battery/outlet, or connect to an extended battery pack with minimal or no hardware mod.

Hello!
We need to upgrade from the iDEN phone. I am curious if the GPS units require cell phone (or similar) service to operate or is it a one-time cost. I am running into brick walls trying to find the answer. I was trying to look at both options before making a decision on how to replace our existing phone.

We are a nonprofit organization that runs a trolley as a tourist attraction along our waterfront. Accutracking enables our guests (and hospitality industry workers who get asked) to locate where the trolley is and approximate how long the wait will be at any given point. It is very handy!

I want to keep it as simple as possible as many of our volunteer operators are technically challenged.

Yes the non-phone GPS trackers would also need a SIM card and the wireless data service.
It could actually be less expensive than Boost Mobile data plan. We recommend PTel Sim Cards which is $4.99/each (either a Mini-SIM or a Combi-SIM is fine), and their Real Paygo Plan which costs 10 cents/MB data.

Most trackers transmits 200~500 bytes on every update. So for update every minute, monthly data usage is about 8M~20M, less than $5. But always test it with your tracker for a few days, as there are other data overhead for the TCP connection/retrial, or device heartbeat data.

ATSupport wrote:Most trackers transmits 200~500 bytes on every update. So for update every minute, monthly data usage is about 8M~20M, less than $5. But always test it with your tracker for a few days, as there are other data overhead for the TCP connection/retrial, or device heartbeat data.